Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!van-bc!ubc-cs!fornax!lupini
From: lupini@cs.sfu.ca (Peter Lupini)
Subject: Why I Would Like "True Multitasking"
Message-ID: <1991Jun28.005152.5815@cs.sfu.ca>
Keywords: multi-tasking
Organization: Simon Fraser University
Date: Fri, 28 Jun 1991 00:51:52 GMT

Hi,

First of all, let me say that I think the mac is a *fantastic* machine - I 
use my IIci for all my research, plus a little graphic arts on the side.

But...without wanting to start up the whole "true" multi-tasking debate, here 
is what I miss most about the current mac system:

I write many programs each day as part of my research. Usually, these are
numerically intensive tasks.  When I used to do this on an Amiga, I could just
write my program, run it, and then open a new window and keep working.  I could
even assign a priority to my "background" task so that I could do useful work
in the foreground.

With the Mac, I use THINK C.  But when I run a program, I have no way of doing 
this.  I must wait until the program has completed execution.  I can't even 
switch to my terminal session and work on the remote machine.  I guess my 
definition of "True Multi-tasking" is that I can write a program without 
knowing anything about multi-tasking, and run it in the background.

So here are my questions:
1) Am I missing something obvious here?  I am assuming that I have to make my
   program "multi-finder" aware or something, and make it be smart about not
   taking all the cpu time while it is running.  This seems to be an incredible
   pain when I'm just writing quick 'n dirty programs which may be used for 
   only a week or so.

2) Does apple have plans to modify the operating system so that this is 
   possible?

3) Am I the only one who has this problem?  I would have thought that anyone
   who uses the mac to write programs that are not specifically for the mac
   user interface (eg. most of my interface consists of a unix-type command
   line!) would run intot this problem.

Any answers/comments would be appreciated!